Rendez-Vous, S'Il Vous Plaît

Film Society and Unifrance Films are très heureux to announce the lineup for the 18th Rendez-vous with French Cinema festival, our annual celebration of the best new films and filmmakers from France. The festival will take place February 28 – March 10 across three venues: BAMCinematek, IFC Center, and here at the Walter Reade Theater and Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

As audiences have come to expect, this year's lineup includes a wide array of cinematic offerings, from delightful and engaging entertainments to works by celebrated auteurs, featuring brave new independent voices and established masters alike.

The festival opens with Régis Roinsard's Populaire, which stars Deborah François as a young career girl in the provinces of 1950s France. With the help of her dashing boss, played by Romain Duris, she finds herself possessed of amazing high-speed typing skills that quickly catapult her to fame.

Jean-Claude Brisseau's The Girl from Nowhere

Among the auteurs on display are Jean-Claude Brisseau (Secret Things), whose new film The Girl from Nowheredepicts a retired math teacher who finds an unlikely muse, and possible mystical agent, in a young girl he saves from a mugging. The film won the Golden Leopard at last year's Locarno Film Festival. Rich Is the Wolf, the latest from the daring Damien Odoul (Deep Breath), plays with form and format in its story of a grieving wife who scours hours of videotape recorded by her husband for clues about his disappearance.

There are quite a few familiar names in this year's roster, like François Ozon (Swimming Pool, 8 Women), whose ironic new film In the Housepits fiction against reality with its story of a literature teacher and frustrated author (Fabrice Luchini) who becomes engrossed with the writing of a star pupil, to the detriment of his relationship with his wife (Kristin Scott Thomas). The late, great Claude Miller's final film is an adaptation of François Mauriac’s celebrated novel Thérèse Desqueyroux, about a disturbed woman's (Audrey Tautou) growing unrest in the face of a stifling marriage. The festival also includes Georges Franju's 1962 adaptation of the same work, which features the stellar cast of Emmanuelle Riva, Philippe Noiret and Edith Scob!

Héléna Klotz's The Atomic Age

We also encourage you to explore some of the new names in this year's lineup, including promising independent artists like Héléna Klotz and Shalimar Preuss. Klotz's mesmerizing debut feature The Atomic Age follows two self-consciously hip youngsters from the suburbs of Paris who spend a adventurous night together in the city. The film won the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo in 2012. Another debut, Preuss's sensitive and nuanced My Blue-Eyed Girlexplores the conflict between a young girl's burgeoning desire for a prison inmate and her familial bond.

For the first time this year, Rendez-vous will include an exciting transmedia event as part of our ongoing Convergence series: ALT_MINDS and the Art of French Transmedia. Eric Viennot's action-packed thriller takes place across a web series, mobile applications, and live events and is sure to enthrall even the transmedia tenderfeet among us.

Below is the full lineup for Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2013. Film Society Member pre-sale starts Thursday, February 7. General public tickets go on sale Thursday, February 14.

OPENING NIGHT!US PREMIEREPOPULAIRERégis Roinsard, 2012, France, 111mStuck in the provinces of 1950s France, Rose (Deborah François) is taken under the wing of her handsome boss (Romain Duris) and develops astonishing skills as a high-speed typist, leading to unexpected fame. In the grand tradition of French social comedy, Régis Roinsard has concocted a scintillating entertainment lovingly looking back on an idealized and innocent decade. Starring Deborah François, Romain Duris. The Weinstein Company will release the movie in July 2013.Thurs., Feb. 28, 7:30pm – PARIS; Fri. Mar. 1, 7:00pm – BAM; Sat., Mar. 2, 7:00pm – IFCIn person: Romain Duris, Régis Roinsard, Deborah François

NEW YORK PREMIERETHE ATOMIC AGE/L’AGE ATOMIQUEHéléna Klotz, 2012, France, DCP; 68mArriving from the Paris outskirts for a round of weekend clubbing, good-looking Victor (Eliott Paquet) and his Central European friend Rainer (Dominik Wojcik) are full of self-confidence and a youthfully self-conscious hipness. But across the span of one night, their impulsive adventure tests emotional and physical limits the lads never before knew in Klotz’s impressively mesmerizing feature debut. Winner of the 2012 Prix Jean Vigo. A TLA Releasing film.Wed. Mar. 6, 9:30pm – IFC; Thurs. Mar. 7, 4pm – WRT; Fri. Mar. 8, 9:00pm – WRT

NEW YORK PREMIEREAUGUSTINEAlice Winocour, 2012, France, 102mBased on a true case, writer-director Winocour has adapted the story of a progressive 19th century doctor/therapist and his unusual patient into a study of personal wills, hidden desires and reversals of fate. A maid who suffers from seizures is sent to a mental hospital, where it seems she’ll be condemned for life until Professor Charcot finds in her the possibilities of testing his advanced notions of the sources of so-called “hysteria.” Soko as Augustine and Vincent Lindon as Charcot deliver astonishing performances. A Music Box Films release.Sun. Mar. 3, 6pm – WRT (no talent); Tues. Mar. 5, 9:00pm – WRT; Wed. Mar. 6, 7:00pm – BAM; Thurs. Mar. 7, 7:00pm – IFCIn person: Alice Winocour

BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING/BOUDU SAUVÉ DES EAUXJean Renoir, 1932, France, 84 min.Boudu (the irrepressible and unforgettable Michel Simon), a Parisian tramp, tries to end it all with a plunge into the river, only to be saved by a well-meaning bookseller. But when his rescuer offers him shelter, Boudu’s anarchic charms rock the household to its foundations. Shot largely on location along the quays of the Seine, Renoir’s freewheeling satire of bourgeois respectability is one of the master’s most innovative early works; it remains, in the words of critic Dave Kehr, “as informal, beguiling, and subversive as its eponymous hero.” Screening in a digital restoration.Sat. Mar. 2, 1:00pm – IFC

THE DAY OF THE CROWS / LE JOUR DES CORNEILLESJean-Christophe Dessaint, 2012, France, 96mRaised like a wild child in the woods by his bitter and fearsome father, a boy finds himself discovering the world beyond the forest in director Dessaint’s enchanting visualization of Jean-Francois Beauchemin’s novel. The sensitively rendered hand-drawn animation and depth of characterization seem like a tribute to the films of Hayao Miyazaki, and yet, this movie for all ages stands very much on its own. Featuring the voices of Jean Reno, Lorànt Deutsch, Isabelle Carré and the late Claude Chabrol in his final film credit.Sat., Mar. 9, 1:00pm – WRTIn person: Jean-Christophe Dessaint

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERETHE GIRL FROM NOWHERE/LA FILLE DE NULLE PARTJean-Claude Brisseau, 2012, France, 91mLost in a maze of his philosophizing while trying to write a book, a retired math teacher is forced to deal with the real world when he must rescue a young woman from the clutches of a thug outside his Paris apartment. What the teacher doesn’t know is that this woman may be his muse, a mystical agent or an angel of death. Stars director Brisseau and Virginie Legeay. Winner of the Golden Leopard, Locarno Film Festival 2012.Sat. Mar. 2, 2:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 10, 2:30pm – WRT

NEW YORK PREMIEREGRANNY’S FUNERAL/ADIEU BERTHE: L’ENTERREMENT DE MÉMÉBruno Podalydès, 2012, France, 100mAlthough he made no effort to see his grandmother in her waning years, pharmacist Armand (director Podalydès’ brother and co-writer Denis) must now deal with her funeral arrangements. This is awkward enough, but nothing like his emotional swings between a wife he can’t quite part from and a lover he can’t quite commit to, in a comedy stamped with the Podalydès brand of caustic, Gallic wit. With Valérie Lemercier, Isabelle Candelier, Catherine Hiegel and Benoît Hamon.Fri. Mar. 1, 9:45pm – IFC; Sun. Mar. 3, 8:15pm – WRT; Mon. Mar. 4, 3:45pm – WRT

NEW YORK PREMIEREIN THE HOUSE/DANS LA MAISONFrançois Ozon, 2012, France, 105mSwept up in the increasingly dazzling and inventive fiction writing of a precocious student, a high school literature teacher and frustrated author (Fabrice Luchini) married to a gallerist (Kristin Scott Thomas) sees real life overtake the fiction. Ozon is at the height of his powers in this ironic, cautionary tale on the dangers of mentoring gone too far. With Emmanuelle Seigner and Ernst Umhauer. A Cohen Media Group release.Fri. Mar. 1, 9:00pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 9:00pm – BAM; Sun. Mar. 3, 6:15pm – IFCIn person: François Ozon

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIEREJAPPELOUPChristian Duguay, 2013, France, 130mA true sports story that utterly defies the odds, Duguay’s film captures the wild ups and downs of the Olympics-bound career of legendary equine star Jappeloup and his troubled rider, locked in a tense relationship with his horseman father and forever uncertain of his own skills as an equestrian. Stars Guillaume Canet, Daniel Auteuil, Marina Hands and Tchéky Karyo.Sat. Mar. 2, 9:40pm – IFC; Wed. Mar. 6, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 9, 5:30pm – WRT

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIEREJOURNAL DE FRANCERaymond Depardon & Claudine Nougaret, 2012, France, 100mDepardon’s brilliant self-portrait (co-directed by his longtime collaborator and sound engineer Claudine Nougaret) takes a surprising point of view on the great documentarian’s life—not only as a filmmaker, but as a photographer of expressive precision, capturing the entirety of French society over the decades. The patience of this imagemaker’s practice is testament to an alternative to the hyper-fast, instant delivery of digital images that now dominates the culture.Mon. Mar. 4, 8:30pm – IFC; Fri. Mar. 8, 4:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 10, 12:15pm – WRT

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERELA MAISON DE LA RADIONicolas Philibert, 2013, France, 103mRadio France is a massive 24/7 operation, a national network which explores every aspect of life from breaking news to live cultural events. Applying his attuned senses to the mega-complex that is Radio France, non-fiction film master Philibert reveals the vast, rich and unexpected world of radio production and the imaginative power of sound.Fri. Mar. 1, 3:30pm – WRT; Sat. Mar. 2, 3:15pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 1:00pm – IFCIn person: Nicolas Philibert

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERETHE NUN/LA RELIGIEUSEGuillaume Nicloux, 2013, France/Germany/Belgium, 114mDrawing on the same Denis Diderot classic as Jacques Rivette’s 1966 film, Nicloux’s version provides a fresh take on the 18th-century story of a young woman’s (a stunning Pauline Etienne) harrowing experiences in nunneries, one run by a too-loving Mother Superior (Isabelle Huppert). Young Suzanne’s discovery that she’s an illegitimate child compels her to a life in the convent, where inhumanity rules and battles of wills ensue. With Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck, Françoise Lebrun.Fri. Mar. 1, 7:00pm – IFC; Sat. Mar. 2, 9pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 8pm – BAMIn person: Guillaume Nicloux

PERSECUTIONPatrice Chéreau, 2009, France, 100minA brutally intimate close-up of the moment-to-moment dissolution of a love affair, this psychological drama stars Romain Duris as a brooding, bestubbled Parisian juggling a hot-and-cold relationship with a jet-setting careerist (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the intrusions of a middle-aged male stalker who has claimed him as the love of his life. Fueled by emotionally charged dialogue and nervy, passionate performances, Persecution continues Chéreau’s masterful observation of human desire in all its intricacies and contradictions. With Jean-Hugues Anglade.Fri. Mar. 1, 9:40pm – BAMIn person: Romain Duris

NEW YORK PREMIERERENOIRGilles Bourdos, 2012, France, 111mSet in 1915, a pivotal time in the lives of master painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his war-wounded son Jean (who’d become one of cinema’s great masters), Bourdos’ atmospheric drama explores the ways in which creative powers wax and wane as one generation gives way to the next. Key to the changes that father and son experience is a female model who’s the elder painter’s last inspiration, and the figure who may turn Jean’s life around. Stars Michel Bouquet, Christa Théret, Vincent Rottiers, Thomas Doret, Romane Bohringer. A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.Sat. Mar. 2, 6pm – WRT; Sun. Mar. 3, 5:00pm – BAM; Wed. Mar. 6, 7:00pm – IFCIn person: Gilles Bourdos

NEW YORK PREMIERERICH IS THE WOLF/LA RICHESSE DU LOUPDamien Odoul, 2012, France, 82mPerplexed at the sudden disappearance of her husband, a wife watches hours of videotape that he’s recorded over the previous seven years to piece together some clues. Odoul’s most daring feature, whose color and black-and-white images are culled from his own videotaping, confirms his place as one of France’s genuinely exploratory filmmakers. Stars Marie-Eve Nadeau, Damien Odoul. Mon. Mar. 4, 6:45pm – IFC; Sat. Mar. 9, 3:30pm – WRT

THE RIVER (LE FLEUVE)Jean Renoir, 1951, France/India/US, 99 min.One of a British upper middle-class family of eight living on the banks of the Ganges River, teenage Harriet grows up in a tolerant and loving atmosphere that blends East and West. But when a dashing captain arrives at a neighbor’s home, the girl’s passions are ignited in ways she can barely fathom or control. Renoir’s classic, first color film, presented in a gorgeously restored print, remains a special and deeply emotional work in the master filmmaker’s oeuvre. Stars Patricia Walters, Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight. Restored by The Academy Film Archive in cooperation with The British Film Institute and Janus Films. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association.Sun. Mar. 3, 1:00pm – WRT

THE RULES OF THE GAME/LA RÈGLE DU JEUJean Renoir, 1939, France 106mRenoir’s finest achievement and consistently praised as one of the best films ever made, The Rules of the Game is essential cinema; entire styles of filmmaking (Altman’s for one) are unthinkable without it. As a cast of characters from all classes assembles at a country house, the farce and melodrama commence, giving occasion for everything from hunting parties and gala balls to extramarital affairs and finally even murder.Sun. Mar. 3, 2:30pm – BAMIn person: Introduction by RENOIR director Gilles Bourdos

NEW YORK PREMIEREYOU, ME AND US/UN ENFANT DE TOIJacques Doillon, 2012, France, 136mThe tentative nature of relationships is explored in dazzling, three-dimensional fashion in this cleverly written and directed roundelay between current and former lovers. Aya, the mother of a bright young daughter, struggles to come to terms with the end of her marriage, while hoping to have a child with her new lover. Stars Lou Doillon, Samuel Benchetrit, Malik Zidi, Olga Milshtein.Sun. Mar. 3, 8:45pm – IFC; Mon. Mar. 4, 6pm – WRT; Tues. Mar. 5, 6:00pm – WRTIn person: Jacques Doillon

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIEREYOU WILL BE MY SON/TU SERAS MON FILSGilles Legrand, 2012, France, 102mInstead of grooming his son to inherit his lucrative wine-growing business, an imperious vintner (Niels Arestrup) looks to a talented California-based grower, rendering a harvest of jealousy and worse. Legrand’s narrative takes on Shakespearean qualities, driven by a titanic performance by Arestrup, while the film’s observations on the wine-growing business are thoroughly engrossing. A Cohen Media Group release.Sun. Mar. 10, 6:30pm – WRTIn person: Gilles Legrand, Niels Arestrup

CONVERGENCEALT_MINDS AND THE ART OF FRENCH TRANSMEDIASome of the most exciting advances in storytelling are taking place in France, with independent creators, corporations, and game companies reshaping how audiences consume stories. At the forefront of this transmedia revolution is the epic pan-European immersive experience ALT_MINDS. When six scientists disappear while on assignment their kidnapping sparks a multinational manhunt. Mysterious online videos, mind-bending puzzles, and clues that point to a dark conspiracy of vast proportions threaten to ensnare the investigators charged with unraveling the mystery. The trick is that in this interactive experience the part of investigator is not played by an actor but assumed by the audience. Game designer, Eric Viennot of Lexis Numérique, will discuss this genre-bending project and the future of storytelling.Sat. Mar. 2, 5:00pm– EBM (Free)In person: Eric Viennot

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